steve, are you somewhere in the distribution channel and able to provide us with some more information? Would be an excellent scoop on the frontpage. Please send me a mail or PM if you are able to give out more information. If not, I'll understand

It is true that Karr did say that the S did not stand for single format, but I'd like to think that they would continue that naming scheme. I feel that at the time that Karr wrote that Lite-ON was still hoping to not have to come out with a DVD+R/RW only drive initially, rather hit the market right away with their own Dual format drive. Now that they're starting off with a single format drive they might as well release the dual format drive as a LDW-401D... The Dual format sony ended with a D afterall...

How do you know that that is a Sony drive ? Is there a link I can do firmware upgrades ( the drive is not listed at Liteon's site ). I bought it for $ 104, but does not see BASF ( EMTEC ) dvd-r's. I need to know if there is a compatibility list somewhere, so I know which media to buy. Thank you.

Hi. You can ask over in the Firmware subsection here or @ forum.rpc1.org for the 440D -> 510A converter, which will allow you to use the standard 510A firmware updates. As for the media compatiblity, check around in the DVD-Media tests forum.

and realized that any liteon DVD 5.25" pc drive could be placed in the liteon DVD deck lvd-2001... as could a Huge HDD in place of the pccard-reader. Any suggestions or ideas how to most intelligently choose a DVD-R/RW drive to put in there instead or a better drive than the LTD-163?

I was also going to try a webasdisk/2 (IDE to IP) adapter, like was done with the sampo 631CF (on area450.com), on this liteon lvd-2001 as well so I could hopefully stream video (wirelessly with a wireless bridge) to the lvd-2001 unit from my pc.

Anyone done this stuff? Any better drives than the LTD-163? Better firmware/firmware suggestions like the OFFA FW?